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Sneak Eat: What We Ate at Linguini Fini Manila’s Pre-Opening Dinner

Take a look at what Chef Vinny Lauria has cooked up for the special dinner and what you can order, once this popular Italian restaurant from Hong Kong opens at SM Mega Fashion Hall this September.

Fresh pasta, pork, farm to table eats, and nose to tail goodness – that is what Linguini Fini is all about. Executive Chef Vinny Lauria is currently in town and recently cooked up an Italian feast for a special pre-opening dinner with guests and media.

Sneak peek: a look inside Linguini Fini Manila

Linguini Fini, an Italian restaurant rooted in New York culture, is brought to the country by The Moment Group in partnership with Hong Kong's Homegrown Foods. The Moment Group is behind the metro's popular restaurants like 'Cue, Manam, BurgerBar, 8Cuts, and Phat Pho Manila. Abba Napa, The Moment Group’s co-owner, is excited to bring to Manila the essence of Linguini Fini, which is all about being authentic Italian serving fresh produce, locally sourced, organic, and homemade. 'Being able to do all of this through a restaurant that is built around sustainability, a nose-to-tail ethos and an honest to goodness desire to champion local purveyors and work with organic produce as much as possible is wonderful. More so, with Linguini Fini, we get the chance to offer this to the diner at prices that won’t necessarily break the bank. And that to us is phenomenal,' says Abba Napa.

Homegrown Foods founder Todd Darling with The Moment Group's Eliza Antonino, Abba Napa and Jon Syjuco
 
Local street artists decorate the walls of the restaurant

The popular Hong Kong restaurant is founded by New Yorker Todd Darling. Todd Darling was also present in the pre-opening dinner to share about the restaurant's focus on fresh and local produce, working closely with our local farmers. 'Italian cooking is traditionally rooted in using local ingredients; it's different in Tuscany, it's different in Sicily, because of what is readily available to them. So like New York Italian food, Italians in America will use what's available locally to them, so that's what's New York Italian food.' Todd shares. 'That's why we were inspired to do Hong Kong Italian food, and then Manila Italian food. And it's not fusion, because it's still traditional Italian food, where we are incorporating local flavors into the food. So Manila will have special dishes that Hong Kong won't have.'

The restaurant is most popular for their signature linguini fini, which will be available in three sauces here in Manila: Classic LF Pomodori (P265), Classic LF Aglio Olio (P235), and Classic LF Puttanesca (P335). Throughout the menu, one will see how local ingredients are used, like in the Manila Caprese (P410), a pizza of cherry tomatoes, house kesong puti, basil, and olive oil. They also have Linguini Tinapa 'Gremolata' (P295), which is a pasta of oven roasted tinapa flakes, lemon zest, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and toasted garlic.

'We are also about hospitality,' Chef Vinny adds, 'I always say that I always treat people like family. I wouldn't serve something if I don't know what's in it.'  The chef ran Mario Batali's famed Babbo in New York before moving to Asia and championing Italian cuisine through Linguini Fini.

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Linguini Fini Manila's open kitchen
 

Linguini Fini Executive Chef Vinny Lauria in the kitchen of Linguini Fini Manila

Take a look at what Chef Vinny has cooked up for the special dinner, and what you can order once Linguini Fini opens its first outlet in the country, located at the third Level of SM Mega Fashion Hall, this September.


Artisan Salumi

Artisan Salumi (P765): Begin your Italian feast with a platter of Italian cured meats, roasted peppers, and olives. Served with Linguini Fini Bread, best dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.


Caprese

Caprese: Chef Vinny prepared an off-menu antipasti, a classic salad of organic tomatoes, homemade mozzarella, basil, and aged balsamico. 'We make our own mozzarella out of fresh curd, and we use local organic heirloom tomatoes, a little bit of fresh basil, and a thirty year old balsamic,' he explains.

 


Crispy Pig's Head Terrina
 

Crispy Pig's Head Terrina: another special for the evening, this item, explains the chef, is inspired by a life changing dish for him. The pig head is brined, then turned it into a terrine, then served with giardinera, or a garden of house pickled vegetables. The giardinera's flavors and texture pairs well with rich and fatty meats, such as pork. The terrina is served with buro aioli. The chef finds our local buro delicious, and uses it to create an aioli to round out the flavors of this dish, along with a little chili salt.


Candied Squid Infused Linguini Fini Spicy Seafood Ragu

Candied Squid Infused Linguini Fini Spicy Seafood Ragu: The chef took dried squid, added a little bit of chili to it, then infused that into their signature Linguini Fini. It is then tossed with a ragu of minced octopus, diced squid, lobster and shrimp. Some green chili and fresh basil were also added. All of the pastas in the restaurant are made in-house with their La Monferinna Pasta machines.

 


Papardelle 'Nose to Tail Bolo'

Papardelle 'Nose to Tail Bolo' (P430): This pasta, flat and wide and with a delicate texture, meets pig's head, veal and oxtail ragu, and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano. This papardelle dish is a personal favorite of the chef. 'I really wanted a badass bolo, and I wanted to do it my way,' he shares, and that as long as you treat the pig's parts right, you will end up with an exceptional pork dish. This pasta is treated like a classic bolognese, and each element is prepared from scratch, such as the brining of the pig and the slow-cooking of the ragu.

 


Spaghetti

Spaghetti (Bavette, P495): a spaghetti dish with crab meat, aligue, chili, mint, dayap juice, was up next. The pasta had an exceptional al dente texture that immediately made this dish the easy favorite of our table that evening. The use of aligue is not overpowering and balances well with the pieces of fresh crab meat.

 


Longganisa & Scarmoza Pizza

Longganisa & Scarmoza Pizza (P755): another special dish created by Chef Vinny for the pre-opening dinner incorporates our local pork sausage, combined with smoked scarmoza (Italian cheese similar to mozzarella), chili leaves, fresh basil, and garlic oil. 'I love longganisa, obviously I love pork,' the chef muses, and adds that he used longganisa with a garlicky profile for his pizza. All pizzas in Linguini Fini are New York style, served round, and 12". For added heat, the restaurant serves house pickled chili in place of chili flakes or hot sauce, and its unique profile of acidity and hotness (with a little bit of crunch) makes for a unique pizza eating experience. Try the pickled chili with the pastas or the meats, as it seems to go well with everything!

 


Porchetta
 

Chef Vinny plating the porchetta

Porchetta (P485): The traditional italian pork dish is served many ways in the restaurant–as a pizza, on taglialtelle, served sliced with caramelized onion marmalata, and chopped with chili mostarda, fennel and focaccia. Our slow roasted, fennel rubbed pork belly was served with the focaccia, like an open-face sandwich towering with flavorful, tender pork goodness. "We took a little bit of the Tuscan approach to it," Chef Vinny says. "I use the belly, I butterfly it, rub it with the fennel, onion, garlic, brown sugar, salt, coriander, and a few other things that if I tell you I'd have to kill you,' he jokes. It is then rolled and tied, roasted for ten hours until it is very tender, then placed on the rotisserie for a couple of hours. To balance out the richness of the porchetta, vegetables from Down To Earth are served.


Porchetta is served with local organic vegetables

Blueberry Cheesecake (P295): To end our 'sneak eat' at Linguini Fini, everyone was served a shot of Homemade Limoncello (P100) and a slice of cake. The sweet alcoholic nectar did its digestivo duties well, while the blueberry cheesecake, served with almond pie crumble that replaces the classic textures of a graham crust, gives a good play of tart, sweet, velvety smooth, and crunchy, on the palate.


Blueberry Cheesecake

 

#LinguiniFiniManila opens next month, September, at the 3rd Level of SM Mega Fashion Hall. Follow Linguini Fini Manila on Twitter and Instagram (@LinguiniFiniMNL), Like them on Facebook (/LinguiniFiniMNL). Visit www.linguinifini.com.

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